There are times when the Holy Spirit brings a more-specific, conscious awareness to a person, in the midst of walking life’s journey. It is a part of a maturing yoked-with-Jesus relationship. Moriah’s ThanksGathering is a yearly tradition, occurring the Saturday before Thanksgiving each year. It came about as a celebration, held in conjunction with the general time-frame The Moriah Foundation was officially established. Each year we want to acknowledge that the LORD has continued His faithfulness to us, for keeping the doors open, for freeing & healing wounded hearts, and in continually teaching us how to live in His love.

As has become a tradition, I ask a couple questions at each ThanksGathering.

“Where are you now compared to this time last year?”

“Where do you want to be (in your life’s journey) a year from now?”

These are two very important questions. In every journey a person must establish from where they started and continue to ‘get their bearings’. A long journey (such as one’s life journey) takes regular, conscious moments of stopping and assessing. Each morning, before we set out, it is a good idea that we look at our compass (the Scriptures) and most-certainly we should ask our Navigator (Jesus) to guide our path. This is how we stay on track. Of equal importance is to celebrate our progress, thank our Guide, and to re-focus on both where we are going and how we are best to get there.

Asking those two important questions is not just a nice yearly exercise. It can become a framework for a partnership with God. It is a moment to become purposefully conscious about our walk with God. For me, it starts a process I would describe as an 'inner planning meeting' with God. It re-affirms that He is the head of my life and my Guide on the next years’ journey. This inner planning meeting is NOT a board/bored meeting. It is a planning meeting for an upcoming adventure. I continue to speak to Him about my hopes, thoughts, and ideas. Yet, I have learned it best to hold loosely my plans. He has plans all His own. They are always well above and beyond anything I could think or conceive. Much of the time they are difficult, require a continued desire to learn, and they stretch me close to the breaking point. However, He never allows anything beyond which He is able to accomplish in me … even when I fully-well believe I cannot bear a single additional step.

I must admit that I regularly wonder about His route. While I am learning to trust Him more fully, I rarely see ahead of time the path He is going to navigate. I am reminded of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. God’s path was a much longer route, appearing to defy navigational logic. That assessment was marked with an exclamation mark, by those on that particular journey, when they all poured out onto a beach which appeared to entrap them on all sides with mountains, an enemy war-machine descending upon them, and very deep waters in front of them. 

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Deep Waters. Yes … that is where God leads us. The Scriptures tell us that Deep calls unto deep (Psalm 42:7). Do we want a deep relationship with God? Do we want to understand the deep things of God? It will require going into deep waters with Him. The Israelites could have travelled a more northerly route, as they left the bondage of Egypt. But they were not prepared for the fight in which they would need to engage going that direction. The waters were shallow there. Yet, shallow waters do not produce deep people. Training in the Spirit requires the ever-increasingly deeper waters of learning, training and experience with God. The more we mature in our walk with God, the deeper the waters.

There was a Land-Bridge deep below the surface of the waters, ready and waiting for the moment the Israelites needed it. They couldn't yet see it, but God had it already appointed and prepared it. And as the moment of deliverance came … the appointed deliverance was revealed by the anointing of the power of God and the breath of His Spirit! The deliverance of the Israelites was undeniably a miracle where God—and God alone—received the glory. The Israelites needed that experience … and so do we. The Prophets of Israel referenced the Red Sea crossing, again and again, as an experiential reminder of God’s miraculous and delivering ways. I believe we are getting ready to see that in these coming days as well. 

God’s remnant people need to see an 'Underwater Land-Bridge' miraculously revealed in front of their own eyes—right now—to prepare them to receive a fresh out-pouring of God’s Spirit in these final days. I am convinced that we will see it. We need a ‘final days’ move of God to drop us to our knees in reverence and repentance for our lack of trust in Him. And we need Him to do something that cannot be claimed by anyone for their own purposes. There will be no ‘glory-stealing’ when God moves in great power in the coming days.

We stand at the water’s edge … it appears impossible. We hear the enemy descending upon us … and it would tempt us to despair and fear. We look around and find no escape route … this would  tempt to feel hopeless, helpless and like giving up. Make no agreements with the enemy! We are right where we need to be for the next move of God. Seek the LORD in prayer, and stretch out the rod of trust and let it miraculously affirm the good heart of God. Fruit will bear. That is the message of the 'budding Rod of Aaron'. When the Rod of TRUST is extending in faith ... the fruit bears.

Get ready to see the waters part, the land-bridge revealed and the breath of the Holy Spirit flowing out to anoint the pathway.